Don't Forget Me
by RainboIsland
Summary: Red doesn't know if she can handle not knowing if they'll ever be together again anymore. Forgetting all your loved ones seems like a welcome relief to this.
1. I

Being the acting sheriff, and basically only authority in Storybrooke had taught Charming one thing. Without Snow he never would have been able to even pretend he could run a kingdom. It was a bit chaotic, to say the least. Along with all of that he was handling the fact that even though his daughter seemed to have been born only yesterday, he had a grandson.

Red was a big help in that area. Without the waitress he was pretty sure that he would have drown in it all quite awhile ago.

Being that Red was his wife's best friend, an almost constant staple during their attempts to take back the kingdom, and now a days basically always there, everyone knew Ruby. Well the prince had gotten to know her, quite well, and for being handed one of the worst circumstances to live your life on he had found that Red was quite the cheerful spirit.

So the lack of her spirit had caught Charming's attention. It wasn't necessarily that she was specifically sad, or mopey. It wasn't that she wasn't helping out or involved. Red was probably one of the only people besides he and Henry who was doing something to improve their circumstances. Not just going with it.

It's not that there was something specific to notice. It was just that there was something _off_ about Red.

Charming tried to ignore the feeling. It wasn't like he didn't have bigger problems to deal with than some indeterminate thing being off about the town werewolf.

What made him realize it may be something serious though was when Henry noticed. It was around nine on a school night. Charming wasn't exactly sure when Henry was supposed to go to sleep...

"Do you think Ruby's sad the curse broke?" The question was abrupt, they hadn't even been talking. It tore Charming's attention from the TV screen and whatever child friendly comedy they were watching. He hadn't even considered that option, it seemed everyone was happy to remember who they were.

No one but Red really had a reason not to be.

"Why would you think that?" Charming asked, shifting to look Henry in the eye. The room light by just the flickering of the TV.

"I don't know. She just seems sad lately, and that's the only thing I could think of for why.." The kid _had_ been quite the sleuth in the past few months. "I mean, if there's magic, and if the curse is broken. Doesn't that mean that Ruby goes back to being a werewolf?"

"Yeah..." Charming swallowed thickly. He hadn't even thought much about Red's own personal curse. ".. I guess it does."

–

Henry's insight kept Charming up most of the night. So when he went into the sheriff's station early the next morning. Tired, irritable, and holding onto his coffee like a life line, he definitely didn't want to take any disturbance calls.

This particular disturbance call however grabbed the prince's attention, and nearly knocked the weariness right out of him.

There were almost always patrols along the boundary around the town. Ever since the not so bright experiment with Sneezy. Mostly they were just to prevent accidental crossing.

Today however Charming was extra glad he had set up the patrol.

He took the squad car. It could be nothing, but for some reason Charming felt a pressing importance that he get to the scene of this 'disturbance' very quickly. He didn't flash on the siren even though he wanted to. It would only draw attention to the car, and cause a big deal about something that could be nothing. There was barely anyone on the streets anyway.

The scene was a rather interesting one. Thomas stood front and center of Red's car. Which The brunette leaned on the hood of. It seemed from her body language, and his. That they had been at their stand off for more than a couple minutes.

From a distance Red appeared relaxed, leaning against the cars grill. However as Charming approached he saw the stiffness in her joints. Fingers bent against the hood, the tips pressed flat. Pressed so hard they had turned a bright white.

Irritation was plain in her tone when she spoke to the younger prince, who was standing dangerously close to the marked boundary line. It was filled though, with hints of other things. Pain, and an all over weariness. As if Red had simply given up.

"Thomas, just move. I'll just come back later and wait till no one's looking. You don't have to play the hero."

"I'm not playing, Red. You don't want to go over there. There's _no_ turning back." He took a step closer to the werewolf, and Charming watched her tense a bit more. "You'll forget who you are." He reminded her.

"I know, that's the point." Red gritted out, and Charming detected a hint of a familiar animalistic snarl.

"Thomas." Charming called, finally stepping in. "Why don't you finish your patrol, I want to talk to Red alone."

"James, you're not going to say anything different than he did. Just, just let me be, okay." Red's voice cracked for the first time, and her hand pressed to her mouth. She looked away sharply. Heat rising to her face. She would be damned before she got emotional in front of these two.

"Thomas, please." Charming tilted his head in the direction of the forest, and the other prince grudgingly complied. The former shepherd watched the other man disappear into the wood. A hand coming to rest on the red hood of Red's car.

"Why do you want to forget?" Charming's demeanor did a one eighty as he turned to face the brunette.

"James... I don't want... I didn't want you to get involved." The brunette sighed a hand pressing itself back flat on her hood. Her eyes journeying to the stark contrast of the pale skin of her hand against the bright harsh paint of the car. Anywhere but James. They then went to the asphalt between her feet. The toes of her boots. Then to the painted line of the boundary. Judging the distance between them. She knew if she tried it Charming wouldn't hesitate to drop her. She stood no chance against him. Not during the day, specifically one with no moon in the sky.

"Is it because of, because you're a werewolf?" The prince hesitated, he had always been awkward about the subject.

Red looked up at him so fast she was in danger of getting whiplash. "What?"

"Well, I thought, actually Henry thought... Maybe, it was because, with the curse broken, and the magic..." Charming suddenly seemed unsure. He scratched the back of his neck, fidgeting.

"James, I don't hate being a werewolf. I don't, love it, but it's part of me. I've learned to live with it. I wouldn't be... this person, without it."

"So, why are you here. Why do you want to forget?" Charming slid his hand through his short hair, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"It's-I." The brunette stopped. Breathed. "It's a love thing. I think you would understand." Charming looked up at Red, brow scrunching.

"A love thing?" Charming couldn't hide his smile even in the rather serious moment.

"It's not funny." Red pressed a hand to her face, again feeling the heat rising. That pounding in her ears. Her eyes itched. She did not want to cry. She felt a small strangled noise pushing itself up her throat. She felt panic growing inside of herself. Whenever she thought too much about the prospect of never seeing her again, this is what happened.

"I don't think it is. Just your wording, look Red I'm here. Just tell me. If you haven't noticed I have a bit of an upsetting love thing going on right now too." He laid a hand on her bicep, and instantly felt her tense, defensive. She didn't want to give into his comforting words. They had made a promise, together. It was all she had left...

"How can you do it? How can you handle never knowing if you'll see her again? _Them_ again? I tried not to think about it. I tried to trust that you would fix it." The dam broke, and Red could no longer contain the tears that had been on call since the day Emma went into that portal. "I just don't want to keep going not knowing. I've already lost someone, and I survived that... Just... barely."

Red was glad for the hood of the car behind her because she was sure if it weren't for it she would be curled on the ground. She felt so vulnerable, something she hated more than anything. But now that she'd let it out she couldn't stop. The fear, the ache, the loneliness she'd been battling on her own for the past two weeks. It welled out of her, like blood out of a fresh cut.

Charming was holding her up with a hand on her elbow, shifting between her and the boundary line. Grabbing the other arm at it's joint.

"Red, are you talking about Emma... Are you and Emma?" The facts were slowly processing in his head, but the realization of what she was saying sent him through another hoop.

"Yeah, we are... Were... together..." Red managed through the thick feeling in her throat.

"I'm going to get them back Red. You can't just give up." Charming gave her a little squeeze. As if to emphasize his point.

"You keep saying that but how? What plan do you have? I can't stand not knowing." The brunette brought her arms over her head. Dragging Charming closer as she did so.

Around the two of them the massive forest seemed silent. The only sound Red's small hiccuping sobs. As if even the bugs had fallen silent in the face of her pain.

"I do have a plan. Not a solid one, but I do have one." Charming kept a hold on the werewolf. Hoping to steer her through her meltdown. "You don't have to be alone though. You've got me, and Henry."

This statement seemed to just draw more hiccups out of Red.

"Red?" The syllable came out sounding like a question. The prince shifted, and was caught quite suddenly off guard when Red lashed out.

He had always been surprised at how strong she was. She definitely didn't look it, and catching him by surprise she could easily over power him.

So when the brunette, flailed her arms forward, in some instinctual attempt to get him off of her. The prince went stumbling backward. One hand still gripping a red sleeve clad arm. He managed to spin on his heel and avoid toppling over the bright yellow spray painted line. He threw an arm out for balance, bringing Red forward with him.

The two teetered on the border for one terrifying second.

Then someone fell.


	2. II

**A/N I hope to keep up this pace of updating, but if I don't do not fret, I already have this whole story planned out, it's just the act of writing the chapters out. Now, enjoy. **

"I know where you're going."

Emma nearly jumped out of her skin as she closed the door only to find Charming standing behind it. Arms crossed with a knowing look on his face.

It took two months. Two months for Emma and Snow to find their way back to Storybrooke. Through a rabbit hole. With Mulan and Aurora. That however is a tale for another time.

There were three things on Emma's mind when she returned. She needed to see Henry. She needed to see Ruby. Also she would love to take a shower. A real shower, not a bath in a freezing stream, or a bucket of hot water.

So after hugging Henry for about an hour, in which she took turns filling in the holes of Snow's and Mulan's retelling of the story. Aurora pretty much just sat on a stool at the bar blocking off the kitchen with owl eyes taking in the oddities of this world. She had then taken her shower, and retold all of the 'exciting' parts of their adventure to Henry until he fell asleep and she carried him to his room.

What a stupid thing had nearly brought her to tears. She never thought she could miss him this much.

Well obviously after those two things were over she would want to get to the one thing on her list that hadn't yet fulfilled been.

However, it turned out she wasn't being quite as sneaky as she thought slipping out of the apartment. Which ended in the expectant, and amused, look James was currently giving her.

"I, just, I, needed some air." Emma placed her hands on her hips, in some desperate attempt to look nonchalant. Her excuse sounded very lame even to her own ears.

"Look, Emma, there's something you really need to know." Charming's amused attitude seemed to flush right out of him.

"What? I thought we covered the basics in there." The blonde pointed behind her at the doorway she had just come out of with her thumb.

"It's something I didn't want to say in front of Snow..., or Mulan and Aurora..."

"Shouldn't they know everything that's happening... I mean isn't everyone kind of looking to you and Snow for guidance?" Emma shifted, this 'private' stuff was making her uncomfortable.

"Emma, I wasn't sure if you wanted Snow to here this... Well..., here it not from you... I, I know about you and Ruby." Charming let the words fall out plain and unveiled. Eyes scanning Emma's face for her reaction.

"What are you-" Emma instantly went to denial, but the look on Charming's face told her it was pointless. "She told you?"

"Yeah, she didn't want to.. She was kind of at the end of her rope."

"So, what are you here to tell me not to go over there or something. I get it's late, but I don't think she'll mind. I'd think you'd get it loverboy." Emma leaned against the rail of the staircase half-grinning in an attempt to make light of the conversation.

Her heart however was in her throat. At the moment she realized that she had just inadvertently come out to her father. She didn't think that was something she'd _ever_ do.

"No, Emma. There's something you need know about Ruby." Charming moved forward, just slightly toward her. One hand lifting off of his arm to reach towards the wide-eyed blonde. He saw one thing plain on her face, one thing that could be recognized if you'd known anyone ever truly in love.

"Did something happen to her. Is she okay? If it was Whale..." She nearly growled the last part as worried went to killer, and Charming had no doubt in his mind that if someone had harmed Red that Emma would be more than sounding killer.

"No one did anything to her it was..." Charming placed the hand he had reached for Emma with against the wall. It _was_ an accident, even if he blamed himself. He had gone into this strongly, but now the thought of telling Emma. No, the thought of telling his daughter, that the person she loved didn't remember them falling in love with her. That she didn't remember loving her. It made him sick to his stomach.

"What, what happened? Dammit David! You can't tell me all worried that something happened to her and then not tell me what? I'll, like, go crazy..." Emma pressed her arm to her eyes, feeling her tears make the fabric of her sleeve moist.

Two months of worrying what Ruby was going through. Wishing she could be there with her through the chaos that was obviously going to come. Now those weeks of worrying silently were becoming too much at the idea that something had happened to Ruby while she wasn't there.

"Emma." The blonde felt the prince's strong hands on her shoulder. She pulled her arms away from her eyes, glad that she had no make up to smear. Sure this guy was her father, but she didn't know him too well. Definitely not enough to break down in front of him.

"Henry and I explained the boundary. How we can't leave or you'll loose your memory... You'll forget your loved ones." Charming's words didn't seem to take long to sink in.

"No, no, she couldn't. She can't." There goes no breaking down. Emma wasn't one for sobbing, but her knees did feel like they would give, and the tears were sliding freely down her cheeks to her chin. Also breathing had become quite a chore.

A wave of protectiveness surged through Charming, that he was extremely surprised by. He cupped her cheek rather loosely in one hand. Giving her plenty of space to pull away.

"Emma, she did."

The blonde set her jaw and tried to do the very simple task of breathing. The disgusting amount of snot that had appeared as her emotions took over her making that pretty hard. "How did it happen?"

"Em-" The former shepherd started, brushing away the tears he could reach with his thumb. His voice filled with that condescending tone people gave very sick people that they didn't want to give their prognosis. Emma cut him off however before he could even deny her.

"No, tell me. I want to know... Did she do it.., on purpose?" Charming felt his self freeze up. He couldn't tell her the whole truth. Emma seemed as close to the same edge that Red was less than a week ago. He however couldn't lie to her.

"It was an accident." Emma let out a long breath of relief, she didn't know what she would do if she'd pushed Ruby to that.

"I can't believe... I can't believe, after, all this to break the curse... She's forgotten, falling in, she's forgotten..., _everything_.."

–

Emma knew this feeling. Emma was old friends with this feeling.

Despair.

It was the thing that made you not want to get out of bed in the morning. The feeling that made you stare into coffee too long. That feeling that made you gag at people that were happy. That feeling that made you wander around aimlessly just thinking. When honestly, you have nothing to think about.

So after a bit of wandering around the sheriff's station and feeling useless, Emma made her way to get a grilled cheese. Grilled cheese and a bit of masochism.

Well, maybe it was more that she wanted to see for herself Ruby's amnesia. However that in it's self was painful. Watching the brunette place the mug of cocoa in front of her, with that sassy smirk, and assurance that her grilled cheese would be out in a few minutes.

She almost wanted to talk to her, but she was unsure if she could remain in control of her emotions if she did. So she just gave her a smile back, and too big of a tip.

It was almost worse that Ruby did remember her. She remembered her as an acquaintance. The girl that had caused a stir in their sleepy town. The one that someone had ordered a cocoa with cinnamon for. Much more than that however. Well it was just a blur, and the more she tried to think about it, remember any details about her, the more things slipped away.

The deja vu Emma was feeling about this particular situation only increased when Henry slid next to her in the booth. That crooked little grin on his face as he asked, "what are you doing?" The kid looked between Emma, whose eyes had snapped down to the mug between her hands, and the only waitress currently on duty.

"Drinking, what's it look like?" Emma teased in replied. She was able to force smile on her face in time to cover the despair that felt like it may consume her.

"What's it look like?" Henry asked, lifting himself up so he was easily eye to eye with Emma. He had cocked one eyebrow up in a look that Emma had heard made him look just like her. From that cocky position it was obvious he had not been fooled.

"It looks like you're here to watch Ruby, like you did for months before the curse broke." Emma opened her mouth to reply, and most likely deny the statement. Henry however placed a finger to her lips, and kept going. "I knew about you guys. I knew before she did that you were in love okay. So stop sitting here moping and break the curse on her so that we can all be happy, like we were _supposed_ to be _when_ the curse broke."

Again Emma opened her mouth to reply, only to snap it closed again when the topic of their conversation came approaching with her grilled cheese. The brunette placed it on the table, leaning over it in that way that could get Emma rather worked up. When it was directed at her, or someone else.

"Anything else I can get for you?" She rose an eyebrow, and Emma deeply missed the mischievous twinkle that she used to be able to find in her eyes at that statement. Like there was something Ruby knew she could get for her.

"Ye-" Henry started to say something, and Emma instantly cut him off, sure that whatever he said was not going to end well.

"No, we're fine."

"Alright then, enjoy." Ruby looked between the two with a smile. Not her big showy grin, but the actually amused one. Emma watched the brunette slip back behind the counter, and couldn't help the way her eyes slid down her. She'd been starved for this woman for the past two months, and now she was so close, yet she couldn't have her.

"How exactly am I magically supposed to just break that curse?" Emma demanded, with a hand flying in the general direction of the brunette. She had no reason to be mocking Henry's knowledge of these things. The kid _was_ the only one who had figured out the curse.

"True loves kiss." Henry replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

**A/N I would absolutely love your reviews, and in them tell me if you would like me to post my upwards of 20 little Red Swan one-shots I have posted on another site here so you can read and review them. **


	3. III

**A/N Thank you few for the lovely reveiws and likes and follows and such, makes me all kinds of happy, and wanting to write more. Now go and read more. **

"True love's kiss?" Emma asked, a small smile on her face. She let out a small huff of air that could have been a laugh. It wasn't that she found it funny, well, no, she did. It was also that she didn't know how else to react. The very idea of what her and Ruby having being true love.

It was, in the best words, terrifying.

"Yes, _of course._ It can break any curse." Henry stated in the same tone as before, finally settling back into the booth comfortably, as if his point had been made.

"And what Henry? Am I just supposed to walk up to her and be like, 'so, do you want to remember who you really are. Then kiss me!'" The blonde switched positions with her son and was now turned in the booth looking down at him.

Henry laughed at her question, which had been only half serious.

"Why not?" He asked suddenly, raising that eyebrow again.

"Because, because, that would be weird Henry. She'd probably think I was crazy, _or_ really creepy." The sheriff frowned. Adding the last bit on partially to make him smile.

"Doesn't matter how you do it, right now it's the only way to break the curse." Henry replied, a bit nonchalantly for a ten year-old delivering such an extreme ultimatum.

Emma frowned, the idea of that was unsettling.

"The only way, that you know of." The blonde replied with her own smirk. Tapping the kid on the nose. Just for the heck of it, she _really_ had missed him.

"Whatever, if you want to go trying to find some other way, and not trust me. I was the one that figured this whole thing out. I mean isn't true love's kiss what broke this curse?" Henry argued, watching his biological mother closely before adding in an exaggeratedly exasperated voice.

"Whatever, try what you want. Now can I have a snack? I _came_ here because I was hungry."

Emma laughed at that. Henry usually could pull off cocky rather cutely.

–

Ruby had been pulling doubles for the past week, and she was starting to get the distinct impression it was because Granny didn't want her to leave the diner.

Sure, they had told her about the curse. About how she had lost her memory less than six weeks after regaining it when she crossed the border. Honestly, it felt like the whole town had gone crazy. Well the whole town but her.

But being out in the town she had known so well since she was six and she had been moved here to live with Granny. Her next of kin. Well it made her feel like maybe she was the one that was crazy, since they all seemed to be going along with it.

Ruby didn't remember anything out of the ordinary until the day David and Granny sat her down and explained to her all of the craziness.

The only part that made her believe. No, made her think she could believe, was the fact that there seemed to be a huge gaping hole in her memory. From just less than a year ago until the beginning of the week.

It wasn't like amnesia victims. Well what you see on movies. How you just can't remember a few months, or a day, or a week.

It wasn't that she couldn't remember what she did one day, or that week, but then could the next. The memories she had all her life seemed to have a rather flimsy quality. Almost like someone had picked through and selected the parts of her memory they wanted and only deleted those. Maybe only the happy parts, or only the parts with someone in them. Then left the others leaving them all shifted and pawed on.

That hole made her think that maybe what Granny and David said was true. One other thing did though. The day that Emma walked into the diner.

It was a chore to remember her name, much less the small fact of why she was in Storybrooke.

Trying to remember even a handful of facts. That put the same kind of hard to push through fog over her head that she got when she tried to remember what fit into those holes that almost filled her memory of the past few months.

This new found clue in the mystery of her missing memory made her want to see where it led. After serving the few people who were at the diner at mid-afternoon, and sneaking as many glances the way of her knew mystery as she could without looking conspicuous. Emma wasn't exactly hard to look at either. Ruby decided she deserved a break.

Her break led the brunette to her favorite place to think since she was nine. Well then it had just been a place to hide.

The best thing about it, was that no one else knew about the way these two storefronts met perfectly in the front, but opened up into a perfect little alley way in the back. Well not exactly perfect. It was barely big enough to sit cross legged in, and you had to squeeze past a tree to get to it.

In a town like Storybrooke, where everyone knows everyone, and everyone had been everywhere. The little crack between two stores was a great little secret.

So, squeezing in there only to find that there was someone else there. It was pretty shocking.

"Who're- Emma, how did you- What..." Ruby attempted to voice 'what the hell are you doing here' in a polite manner, that just left her stuttering like an idiot.

"Oh. I'm sorry, am I invading?" Emma asked, pushing herself off the bricks. Attempting to seem just as surprised to find Ruby here as Ruby was her. While she seriously wanted to smack herself as this was one of the biggest duhs she could think of. This was Ruby's place, she had made such a big deal before taking her to it because it was. It was her place, and she hadn't brought anyone else here until Emma.

She obviously didn't remember bringing Emma here.

"No, I just... This place is rather hard to find. I was-" Ruby let out a small nervous laugh, for some reason Emma's presence was making her nervous. "-under the impression that I was the only person who knew about this little crack."

"Sorry I ruined your secret..." Emma offered. Usually she would have a bite of sarcasm on there, or something. But the look on Ruby's face, and the way she was holding herself like she was just so disappointed that her 'secret place' had been spoiled.

"It's okay, secrets don't last long in this town." A smile lifted at the corners of Ruby's lips, and she let her body lean into the wall next to Emma.

Emma couldn't help but smile at that statement. She could think of one that might have set the record.

"Should I go? We can pretend this never happened." Emma asked leaning against the wall opposite Ruby, their feet touched in the process of shifting sides and Emma felt her heart jump.

"No, a little company is nice sometimes." Ruby really just wanted to know why whenever she tried to remember anything about Emma her head got fuzzy.

"Even in your secret place?" Damn, was that a slip, Ruby had specifically called it her secret place when she'd shown her, from the look on her face it was definitely cause for suspicion.

"Even in my secret place." Ruby smiled after the second it seemed to take to recover. She was being paranoid because of the feeling Emma made stir around in her. The brunette gave a little kick of one foot, and it brushed Emma's and she could hear the blonde's breath catch in her chest. "As long as you don't treat me like I'm about five."

"Hmm?" Emma questioned, one eyebrow raised in the face that she had heard caused her and Henry to look very alike.

"Everyone treats me like a little kid because of my _memory loss_." The waitress explained herself, the last words doubtful, and even accompanied with an eye roll.

"Do you believe them? About the curse?" Emma leaned toward her former girlfriend. The topic coming up felt like a godsend, and her heart was thundering in her ears. She was starved to know what Ruby knew.

"It all seems crazy..." Ruby flexed her hands against the wall of the building supporting her, causing her body to bounce. She wasn't looking Emma in the eye because she didn't know if she wanted to see what was going on in them. She didn't want to see pity, and even if everyone else believed in the curse... She still felt crazy admitting it to them. Not looking her in the eyes made it easier. "But, I think I might. I just can't remember anything."

"I mean, I can't imagine all these things I remember. About growing up here. About this life. I can't imagine them not being real... It's like I have this fog..." Ruby wrung her hands together. She still couldn't look Emma in the eyes. All other facts aside, looking Emma in the eye, and having her look back. Seemingly into her soul. It made her feel funny inside.

"It's because... This'll sound nuts." Emma cupped her hands over her eyes, she wouldn't have believed anyone telling her this a few months ago. She felt a little ridiculous. After all, this right here was the same Ruby she had fallen in love with. Now she was telling to believe in magic.

"No, tell me, it's like everyone's scared to talk to me about it. Granny pretends like nothing's changed... Other people avoid me like the plague. The only socialization I've had lately is with the pharmacist and David." In her eagerness to get the rest of Emma's statement out of her Ruby had moved forward. Just slightly, but in the small space it made them seem a lot closer. Her hand had landed a few inches from Emma's arm to keep herself steady.

The shorter woman felt her gut clench at her once-lover's closeness. A few bits of hair had fallen into Ruby's face. Emma felt the need to push them behind her ear, like she had done so many times before. Hazel eyes were wide, sparkling with exhilaration.

"You're cursed. They told you crossing the boundary erases your memory, but it didn't set you back to like default... You remember me?" Emma finished in a bit of a question. She wanted to know, so badly, what Ruby remembered about her. Could they save what they'd had?

The brunette however looked down at her feet at that statement. "Just barely. You're hard to remember... It's like the more I try the more I forget. It's almost like there's white out or something over more than half my memory, and I don't know how to scrape it off."

Ruby's put out tone made Emma's heart chords ring. Everything about that woman did. The way her whole face shifted into each emotion. She would do anything to get her back. To be able to hold her without having to explain herself.

"I think I might know, how to scrape the white out off... It's kind of insane though." The very thought made Emma tense with anticipation. Her heart had picked up speed, and when she found Ruby's eyes. Excitement seemed to fill her whole body.

"I'll try _anything_."

It was all the encouragement that Emma needed. She had been yearning for this moment for the better half of two months.

It was now or never she decided, and she'd never know if she didn't try.

She pushed off of the wall behind her with her hands, and the force was enough to close the bit of distance between them. Emma didn't reach for her. Didn't go slow so Ruby could figure out what she was doing. Instead she rushed into it, her lips finding the familiar plane of Ruby's. Her nose bumping the other woman's cheek, and a hand hovering over the brunette's hip.

It was a moment of pure ecstasy. Ruby was like a drug to Emma and she had been withdrawling for a few long weeks.

Her lips were slightly tacky with her bright red lipstick, and as Emma's lips moved against hers Ruby's did so in reply. For one brief fraction of a second.

It didn't last much longer than a second though, because then Emma was back against the hard brick of the wall behind her. Sucking in air because her heart was beating so fast that it was using up way too much oxygen.

It was amazing to her that she was able to deduce by the way Ruby was holding herself and her hands that she had pushed her away.

She didn't think that she would ever get the look on Ruby's face out of her head.

"What the hell!?" The brunette stumbled sideways in the tight space that barely accommodated her shoulders.

She almost fell, and Emma was still recovering from the rather forceful rejection, to do anything about it.

The only thing Emma could think of as Ruby pushed her way out of the hidden alley, was that maybe what they'd had wasn't true love.


	4. IV

**A/N This one was a little rickety getting starting. I'm not sure if I'm still entirely happy with it, do you like?**

It had been three days since Emma's confrontation with Ruby in her secret alleyway, and Emma had been for the most part, miserable.

Living with her as they were her parents had picked up on that. Everyone had picked up on that.

Even under Snow's constant questioning if he knew why, Charming had not told his wife. He had even endured her rather potent pout. The David part of him knew that outing someone, even more so to their parents, without their permission could be really bad. The James part of him knew what he had been taught all of his life. That love was love, and it didn't matter who you loved as long as you're love was true.

Emma however had grown up in the world that David knew the rules of, and so he thought it best to stick with what David knew.

Which left Snow still not knowing what was bothering her daughter, and knowing that she couldn't very easily ask her. You'd have to be rather oblivious to notice that she wasn't the most open person.

You'd also have to be oblivious though not to know that Snow was an almost painfully caring person, and wouldn't stop until she had done her best to help those she cared about. That was how Emma ended up cornered in the kitchen while making coffee the third morning of her overly obvious misery.

"Emma, is there something wrong?" The brunette finally asked, and the tone of her voice made it obvious that she had been wanting to ask for some time. Charming instantly looked up from his coffee, and Henry dropped his pencil mid-twirl as he finished the math homework he should have done the night before.

The would-have-been princess however instantly bristled at the well-meaning question. Forevermore in defense mode.

She would love to open up to Mary Margaret, to Snow, to..., her mother. But she was painfully stubborn, and would always back away when approached. Especially in front of others.

"I'm fine. No offense, but I'm just having a little bit of trouble adjusting, to all of this." Emma made a wide gesture to the three of them, her family, with her filled coffee cup, before stalking off to hide in her room.

Her answer was almost obviously a lie. Not only the fact that she was fine, which was too easy not to believe. Also though the fact that she was having trouble adjusting. At first, in the enchanted forest, it had been hard. She was however a creature trained to adapt well to change. Now, she almost wished it wasn't true, but she was the most comfortable in this situation as she had been her whole life.

The drama with Regina was mostly sorted out, the woman was getting the help she had obviously needed all her life. She had found the family she had spent the majority of her life looking for. She had even found out why she had never felt quite right in the world she was living in.

If only the terrible problem of the woman she was still head over heels in love with could be fixed somehow.

–

Spending a good amount of the morning holed away in her room had stewed the subject of that 'somehow' into a dire need in her head.

The idea that what she and Ruby had had wasn't true love still stung. It stung very badly. It didn't however make her stop wanting Ruby return to her not brain screwed state.

So when everyone had left the apartment, and she had made herself presentable, Emma made her way to the home of one of the two people in Storybrooke that she thought may have the answer to what could break the curse over Ruby.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Rumpelstiltskin.

She shifted on the doorstep, of the formidable mansion. Never did she think she would be here by her own decision again.

At her insistent knocking the door almost flew open, and with the force of it, and the magic in the town... Emma was surprised to find Regina holding the handle on the other side, and not standing across the room surrounded with flames.

Not that she would ever admit it out loud, but the idea of Regina with control over her magic actually scared the hell out of Emma.

Yes, she had been told about Regina's little Magic-aholic meetings with Dr. Hopper, she still wasn't convinced that Regina wouldn't want to scare the hell out of because she could.

"Miss Swan, come in. To what do I owe the pleasure?" It was hard to keep all of the sarcasm out of her voice so Regina didn't. Instead she just smiled her most sincere smile, and tried to look at Emma in the best light.

"I actually have a, magic question for you..." The blonde responded, a bit hesitant to be alone with the once evil Queen. She entered the mansion anyway, and followed the mayor to the same room she'd been taken to when she first came to Storybrooke.

"I thought James would have told you, I'm actually trying to resist magic. I'm sorry I can't help you.." The thing that shocked Regina the most was that she actually did feel sorry.

"It's not that I want you to perform any spells.., or.., whatever.." Emma looked at her hands, one resting across her thigh, and the other gripping her knee.

Suddenly the sheriff felt very self-conscious. Regina owed her nothing, and if she started asking the questions on her mind it wouldn't take the older woman long to figure out why she wanted to know the answers.

The brunette woman studied her as if she were a very interesting specimen. Standing as she did so, and going to the little drink bar she had oddly fitted into her study. Her hospitality was unnerving Emma, as it always had, but with a rejuvenation.

"What is it that you want to me to do then?" There was humor in the mayor's voice, and without its wicked edge that too was unsettling.

Emma shifted, and looked around the book-lined walls. Regina was still watching her.

"Do you want something to drink? I don't have anything much stronger than apple cider sadly."

"No, not really..." The idea of apples being served to her from Regina, no matter how hospitable she was being, was not at all appetizing.

Regina _had_ tried to put her into an infinite sleep filled with all of her regrets, and misdeeds, with _an apple_.

"I was wondering if you had any idea how to break the border curse..." The shorter woman finally let her thoughts be known. She had finally come across a way of phrasing it that didn't sound totally obvious.

"I don't think it's because you want to reunite the seven dwarfs is it?"

Well maybe Emma hadn't been as inconspicuous as she thought.

"No. It's not. I, and a few other people including her grandmother, would really like to have Red back."

"Have you tried, true love's kiss? In my experience it breaks _any_ curse." Regina couldn't resist that one, she, however, didn't know that it only drove home the heartache Emma had been feeling the past few days. She only wanted to tease her about the fact that she knew of their, supposedly so well kept, secret.

"I don't think there is a true love to kiss." Emma swallowed thickly, and almost swore at the way her words sounded choked. She was not about to start showing weakness to the enemy.

"Oh." Regina, for the first time in a number of years, felt a wave of regret for the dig. "You do know that the kiss only works if _both_ parties are in love?"

It was the most obvious thing. The most obvious thing to anyone who had firsthand experience, or knew the ins and outs of magic.

Briefly Emma wondered why Henry hadn't told her this. Then if she wondered if he'd known.

"I did... n't." The blonde couldn't help the smile spreading across her face, she had hope. Hope filling like a balloon inside of her, and surprisingly, it was leaving little to no room for the awful feelings that had filled her to the brim lately.

"If making her fall in love with you again doesn't work, you can always try shoving her over the border again." Regina told the elated sheriff that was already standing as if she could use this new knowledge to fix her problem right away.

"I do wonder if it works like an on, off switch." Regina all but joked.

"Thank you." Emma grinned over her shoulder at the smirking mayor.

Never did she think she would be laughing at Regina Mills' jokes.

–

After Emma's conversation with the mayor, and her hurried return home, reality set in. Emma still had to make Ruby fall in love with her, all over again. In order for her to remember falling in love with her in the first place. Magic was so confusing.

She was sure that they would have just been better of in Fairytale land, or whatever it was called, with electricity instead. Less people would have died, and this curse never would have happened.

Then she would have never had Henry, and Ruby would be like twenty years older than her.

So maybe magic was a good thing... Confusing.

Although she still had a long way to go on the 'get Ruby back,' front. Emma had decided on one thing.

She had to stop being such an ass to her parents, who she may have been keeping a subconscious grudge against for sending her away over twenty eight years ago, for twenty eight years. Then again, without that, no Henry, no Ruby.

It was time for her to stop being a baby, and see the good they had meant by it, and stop subconsciously punishing them.

What would be the best way to do that? _Show them you trust them._ She was seriously in need of some motherly, and possibly fatherly, advice.

This reasoning lead to Emma sitting across from her parents at the kitchen table. Focusing mainly on Snow, as she opened her mouth, hoping this would come out right.

"Snow, er, I'm sorry I still can't get out mom." She looked at the table, thinking, _great start Swan_. Back up to those big eyes she was sure Henry got straight from her.

"Not the best way to start this conversation, sorry. But there's something I think you should know... Me being your daughter I guess.." Emma stopped again. She was never good with words.

Ruby had always loved that, said she preferred her actions, especially when those actions were explaining herself with another use of her mouth.

"Emma, you don't have to tell us anything you don't want. I don't want this to be awkward for you at all."

Snow really could say all the right things at all the right times. No wonder she made such a good queen.

"I do want you to know. That, that's the point. It's not so much because you're my mother... It's because I trust you." Emma took a breath, _why does this feel so serious? Because it is._

She was speaking fully to Snow now, since Charming basically already knew. She took a breath, moment of truth. It seemed you could tell those trusting brown eyes anything. "I'm.., gay... I like women. Specifically one, Ruby."

The way Snow's face softened it wasn't unexpected. That was though, because Emma hadn't expected anything. She'd been to scared to think that far.

"You two are together?" The obvious _aww _tone in her voice made Charming flinch, and Emma's heart melt, for the good or for the worse. Her mother liked the idea her daughter and her best friend together. She thought they were cute.

"Eh- not at the moment." Emma looked again at the table beneath her hands. It was suddenly looking very fuzzy and bright. Voicing that fact made her heart hurt.

Ruby had actually been avoiding her since the incident in the alley. All of her plans for pursuing curse breakage seemed to melt as that one extremely painful thought swirled around and around in her head.

By jumping the gun she had ruined, or seriously effected chances of Ruby falling for her again. Seriously.

"She kind of forgot our love story when she crossed the border." Emma tried to joke about it but she just ended up sounding frail. The hope that had filled her for the past hour seemed to have found a pinprick in its balloon and was slowly leaking out.

Snow started to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden pounding on the door..

"Who?" Charming grumbled, standing from the table, and walking to the door. Only for it to open as he reached it.

"I thought- since she didn't remember that the full moon wouldn't effect her. But it has. James, she's out, and she's turned, and she doesn't know what's happening. All those months of gaining control, gone..." At the sound of Granny's strained voice Emma was up and to the door along side Charming in an instant.

"I'm not as young as I used to be, I can't catch her..." The old woman was hardly breathing, and Emma's eyes were glued to the crossbow in her hand, and the red cloak tossed over her shoulder. "How was I supposed to explain that she needed to wear the hood? That she's a werewolf?You've gotta' catch her. You've gotta' get her before she hurts someone, or herself."

"Let me do it. Let me go after her." Emma all but demanded.

**A/N Another cliffhanger... Sort of. Did you like it? As always tell me in your review. **


	5. V

"Emma, I should really do this." Charming stated, placing a hand over the smaller blonde's shoulder. His attempt at sounding reassuring only succeeding in reassuring Emma that she needed to do it.

"No, let me, please." Emma looked from the prince to the older woman standing in their doorway. Who she immediately stepped out of the way to let in. "What do I have to do?" Snow was hovering at her shoulder now. With her full-fledged worried expression.

"First off do you even know how to shoot a crossbow?" Granny set the large weapon on the table directing her judgmental gaze to the blonde.

"Point and pull the trigger, right?" Emma asked raising an eyebrow.

"... Basically..." The grouchy woman huffed. "Aim for the hip, or the shoulder. Anywhere but the heart. She heals amazingly quick, even to silver, but she can't survive that." The worry over her granddaughter was obvious in the old woman's tone.

"When she's down get the cloak over her, and she'll change back. Keep it on her though, or else she'll just go right back the second the moonlight hits her." Granny raised her gaze from the fabric in her hands, to Emma's blue eyes.

"I'm trusting you with my granddaughter's life, and sanity. Don't let her hurt herself or anyone else." She then pressed the weapon and cloak into Emma's chest. "She took off into the woods near the inn, trust me even you'll be able to follow the path."

Emma couldn't help, as she drove through the night to the inn, but think that last statement towards her was meant to be an insult.

The spot was obvious, there were scratch marks over the fence, and she could tell by the size of them what a huge wolf Ruby was. She took off into the woods, pacing herself in case she did have to run for her life. It was honestly best to remain realistic.

The path made by the huge wolf _was_ easy to follow. There were even a few places where you could see that she had gone off and come back to it.

The trail led her back around to the beach. The waves were crashing loudly to her right, and the night felt even colder here. Colder and more menacing. The fact that there was no cover here, and that left Emma all too open for attack by Ruby, in her killer form, made the hairs on the back of Emma's neck stand up.

The blonde finally stopped, she'd lost the tracks in the sand, and after turning in the mess of them on the sand she found out why the wolf had made a few huge circles, that twisted back and forth intermingling with each other. She'd been catching sea gulls, and had been successful in catching quite a few of them.

The blonde gagged at the smears of blood and feathers in the sand. The crushed half torn apart, lifeless bodies. They were just seagulls. The rats of the sky.

It scared her, because it was solid proof of the actual beast Ruby had inside her. Emma had never been face to face with the fact of it until now as she turned over a seagull carcass over with the toe of her boot.

Her Ruby, the immature and adorable waitress she knew who made her kill spiders and throw them away would never even be able to look at this. Much less do it.

Looking up from the bird she saw the tracks from huge paws blurring into two parallel lines where Ruby had rather obviously took off after something.

Emma followed them with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn't think whatever had caught her attention was the equivalent of a seagull.

She was keeping her even pace from before. Until she heard a long howl. Then she was running. The scream mingling with it fueling her.

Archie stood a good twenty feet from a huge wolf. He stumbled back a few feet. Which the wolf gained.

One stupid thought crossed Emma's head. Wolves hunt in packs.

She wasn't an ordinary wolf. She, this was Ruby.

Emma raised the crossbow, aim for the hip she had said.

Terror gripped the blonde. _What if she missed? _

The wolf let out another long growl, playing with him. Pongo stood some yards away. One flank of his whit fur stained red. He backed up with his master. Not wanting to leave him.

"Emma!" The psychologist cried. The panic in his eyes terrifying. It was the push she needed. Emma looked down the silver bolt fixed into the cross bow.

Aim and shoot.

The wolf was knocked off her feet. Flying to one side in a squirming heap. Emma flew after her.

She flung the cloak over the beast as she had been told. Dropping onto her knees as she did so. She wrapped her arms around the withering, whimpering creature. For some stupid reason tears rising in her eyes.

Archie stood panting the several feet he had been away from almost certain death.

"Is that... Is that Ruby?" The conscious panted, backing up more in the sand. " I was just walking Pongo, and it showed up out of nowhere, and pounced on him. I kicked it away, but it just came back at me. I..."

"Just go, just please, go away..." The tears pressed to the back of her eyes. Why was she crying? She had been successful.

One of Emma's hands slid beneath the cloak and found the bolt, right in the place where her hip met her body. Still furry, and shifting. She gave it as hard a tug as she did. It didn't come out covered in blood like she expect. Instead it seemed to have burned her.

She pressed her hands to the form beneath the cloak. It was shifting, and she could almost feel the canine body becoming the one she knew so well to be Ruby's.

"Emma-" Archie started again, only to be cut off.

"No, just go. Take Pongo, and go." Emma swallowed her pain. She'd just _shot_ Ruby.

At some point Archie did leave, after several attempts to talk to Emma, Pongo's wound seemed to become to important to ignore.

Around that time Ruby seemed to regain consciousness.

Emma wrapped the cloak around her, and pulled her to her chest. She didn't care if Ruby didn't remember falling in love with her. If she was still totally freaked out about her kissing her. This was still the woman she loved, and she was hurting. So god dammit she was going to be there for her.

The brunette gripped her very suddenly. Grabbing at the thin material of her tee-shirt and her leather jacket. She was half panting, half sobbing.

"What am I." She whimpered into Emma's shoulder.

"You're a werewolf." The blonde responded quite simply.

"I can't remember anything, the most obvious things! I just want to remember! I hate feeling so helpless..." Ruby pulled the blonde closer, and buried her face in her shirt. She took an unreasonable comfort in being close to her. Even if she had jumped her in her secret place.

Emma rocked back and forth, Ruby practically in her lap as they sat on the cold sand. A hand sliding up the lean woman's back, and shift the cloak to pull the hood up over her head.

"I kissed you because I was trying to, to make you remember."

Ruby pulled away, blinking tears away, a very confused look on her face.

"Ruby... Before the curse broke, well, before you crossed the border. We were, together. Me and you... We were in love..."

"Oh... That's what David wouldn't tell me. That's why I feel..." Ruby trailed off. All sorts of things falling into place in her head.

"Yeah, and I thought..., Henry told me..., that true love's kiss would break the curse... Then Regina told me, after I kissed you, that _both_ people have to be in love for it to work..." They were both still very close, and as Emma looked back from the night sky, and the round silver circle of the moon, to the hazel eyes of her once lover.

"So, you kissing me would only work if I loved you?" Ruby knew there was some unexplainable affection throbbing in her for this woman. That though, wasn't love.

"Yeah..." Emma trailed off again, she felt stupid, and vulnerable. What if Ruby didn't even believe her.

"I... feel this way about you. Like my heart knows that we're in love even if the curse made me not remember... I feel like it could be love... If I knew you better..." Ruby let out a small half laugh at the end. Her pulse had sped way up, and she shuffled clumsily backwards to put a bit of distance between them. "Like... I just feel this crazy attachment to you, and I didn't know what it was... until now.."

She felt stupid, and rather scared at opening up to Emma because Emma knew her. She didn't even know how well Emma knew her. What she knew about her. But she didn't know Emma, not more than could fill a page of notebook paper. No more than the basic facts, and a few charactersistics.

"So let me get to know you. I feel like... like I just want to be around you."

All the weight, and confusion, and heartache of the past few days seemed to all be pushed off of Emma's chest, and she could finally breathe.

They were in this together. Together, with Ruby. _Together_.


	6. VI

**A/N I apologize that this took longer than usual, I have no other excuse then that I was trying to make this the best it could be. Well that and I was sick. **

Ruby didn't want to move.

It was an absurd and somewhat alarming fact.

She was practically sitting in the lap of the woman who had kissed her without warning. This woman that she barely knew.

It was a brisk night on a beach of coastal Maine, and the cold sand was leaching the body heat out of her. She was wearing nothing but her waitress's uniform and this red cloak.

Yet she didn't want to move.

Emma however was getting up, and the action caused Ruby to slide out of her lap. Which the blonde noticed and quickly put a hand around her to stop her from falling onto the well packed sand.

"I'm sorry, I probably should have warned you." Emma apologized, with that half grin that suited her so well. Her hand gripping the small of the brunette's back.

"You're fine." Ruby all but giggled. The emotions that seemed to be born from nowhere bubbling up in her at being so close, being almost held, by the sheriff.

Then Emma released her, simply dropping her hand back down at her side, and Ruby felt foolishly empty. All of these emotions, mixed in with Emma's recent revelations. It was, in the simplest terms, confusing.

–

After a call to the Charming residence Emma told Ruby she would walk her home, seeing as that was where her ride was anyway. It was the kind, sheriff-like thing to do. It wasn't because she didn't want to leave Ruby. Not that Ruby seemed to mind if it was.

On their walk Emma noticed Ruby's constant shifting with the material of her cloak, and with nothing filling the silence between them she decided to take it upon herself to explain.

"The cloak keeps you from turning into a wolf." The so-called savior explained. "It's enchanted, I guess. Henry explained it to me... You'll turn tomorrow night, and the night after if you don't wear it. I know they're not all full moons-"

"But the day before and after the full moon, as well as the full moon are like, just as potent. It's called wolfstime, I know." Ruby finished Emma's explanation looking at her boot clad feet. Then back to Emma's bewildered features. "I was kind of interested in werewolves when I was like, thirteen. Maybe now I know why." The hazel-eyed girl explained.

"Snow says that she always had things like that when they were cursed. Like.., deja vu moments. Things that caught her attention for no reason." Emma looked to the woods on the left of them after her statement, because if she didn't look at something she feared she would just keep staring at Ruby.

"I think I'm having them too... The more I look at these memories..., the ones I think, or thought, are my life. Well the more I look at them there's holes. Places where things don't line up quite right, and..., and things I can't explain..." _Like what I'm feeling for you._ Ruby left off her example.

It wasn't that she didn't want Emma to know that she was feeling this way about her, Emma obviously felt something rather strongly for her. It was just that she wanted to wait until she could explain it.

"I can't imagine..." Emma drifted, she hadn't really thought about that fact. Ruby was being told all of the memories from her life weren't real, they were just the delusion of a curse. Without the proof of a life you'd lived, it would be a very hard fact to grasp.

They floated into silence, not an awkward one, even before they had begun the dance around each other that had led to their relationship the two had never suffered an awkward silence.

Ruby however eventually broke the comfortable silence. "I didn't..." She faltered, as if she was suddenly unsure if she wanted to finish the statement. Before clenching one fist around the edge of her cloak. "I didn't hurt anyone did I? Tonight... when I was..."

"No... Archie was there, but he wasn't hurt.." Emma felt the pound of her heart in her ears, that natural urge to protect Ruby from hurt flowing through her. Pongo didn't really count as an anyone did he?

"So... not this time... not that you know of..."

The seagulls covering the beach floated across Emma's mind.

They reached the inn however before Emma had to respond to that, and Ruby turned on her heel at the door. Startling Emma with how close they were, rather suddenly.

"Thank you." The waitress stated, eyes looking past Emma in an almost shy manner. "For making sure-" The brunette stopped, and restarted. Finding Emma's eyes as she did. "For what you did tonight, and for telling me what no one else was going to." She looked away again. This time to the practically full moon.

"It's no problem, I'd do any-" Emma stopped mid-word, when hazel eyes snapped back to hers. "It's no problem."

The silence filled the dark cool air between them, and Ruby felt like she was almost being drawn to Emma.

After waking up with that ice pack to her head almost two weeks everything had felt askew. Except for one thing, Emma.

There seemed to be nothing magnificent about her in her leather jacket and worn skinny jeans. Nothing to make you look twice, but maybe the crossbow hanging in the limp grip of one hand. However every little lackluster thing about her just seemed to grip Ruby's high tuned senses.

Neither of them could really remember moving closer, but Ruby's hand was on Emma's bicep. Light, gentle, and slightly questioning. Emma just barely caught Ruby's hazel eyes, reflecting the moonlight, flickering between her eyes to her slightly parted lips.

It was a situation all too familiar for Emma, and yet her heart still sped up. Her lips still felt suddenly dry, and her nerves all seemed much too sensitive.

"Ruby! Girl, I was worried sick. Then I see you two out here dawdling." The pair snapped apart, not unnoticed by Granny who was standing at the door, making a face somewhere between scolding and menacing.

"I, was just, thanking Emma for... Um..." Ruby looked down at her feet, cheeks heating up as she wrapped her cloak around herself, a comforting habit she didn't know she had formed over twenty-eight years ago.

"Get in here." The innkeeper waved her granddaughter in the door with a small smirk. "And my crossbow?" Granny turned her eyes to the blonde who stumbled forward. Flustered and still rather caught up in the moment. Well the almost moment.

Emma offered up the weapon which Granny reached over, creating a cover to wrap her in a bear hug. _"Thank you. You got her home safe."_ She whispered into the blonde's ear before releasing her with a small nod.

The sheriff rocked on her heels, before turning to go.

Half way to her bug however Emma was stopped by a hand clamped on her shoulder and the blonde spun around, closer than before to Ruby. Their toes bumped together and the tall brunette gave her a rather flustered grin.

"I want to see you again, not under some weird circumstance. Just you, and me, and dinner or something." Ruby stated, her words rushed and excited. She hadn't come out here with much of a plan.

"Tomorrow...? What about a picnic." Emma answered almost instantly, the prospect of being alone with Ruby was too good to pass up. "I know a great place." The fact that it was the place of their first 'official' date was definitely a deciding factor.

"Meet me after my shift? I get off at five." Ruby was still extremely close and when she proposed the time she moved back just a bit. Leaving enough space between them to let a drift of not so warm air in the gap.

"I'll be there with the food." The shorter woman replied. She couldn't keep the smile off her face any longer, and the sight of it seemed to cause Ruby to break out into one of her own.

–

"We were totally lost." Ruby stated as she helped Emma spread their blanket.

The perfect spot was a spot Ruby had actually been to before, although most memories of it were vague. Like a picture someone had erased the edges of.

It was a clearing somewhere in the middle of the woods that surrounded Storybrooke. A few hills met and a small lake was near dead center of it.

"We weren't lost." Emma replied stubbornly. Setting the basket with their dinner in it in the center of quilt.

"If I didn't figure out where you were taking us, we would have never found this place." The brunette argued, kneeling on the blanket, and peeking into the basket.

"That doesn't mean we were lost." The sheriff grumbled, smacking the werewolf's hand off of the basket.

"It kind of does." Ruby teased, with a smile directed at Emma over the small box separating them. The blonde just glared playfully at the brunette in return. "What're we eating?"

"Um..., pasta primavera... salad..." Emma offered, pulling the dish it was in out of the basket.

"Impressive." The waitress noted, moving toward the blonde to get a better look at the dish. A hand closing around the plaid material of the quilt under them.

"Snow made it." The blonde confessed, watching the brunette inspect their meal through the curtain of her hair covering the right side of her face as she set the plates next to the younger woman.

"It looks delicious." Ruby complemented the absent brunette, rolling onto her back on the quilt.

"I hope it tastes delicious too." Emma stated, placing a plate, now with pasta on it on the brunette's stomach. "There's dessert too." She added as Ruby attempted to sit up with out moving the plate or spilling.

"Did Ma-Snow make that too?" The waitress asked, finally giving up and lifting the plate from her stomach, before turning her eyes to the other woman's blue ones. There was a teasing flicker in her hazel orbs and Emma felt a flutter in the bottom of her stomach.

"No..." The blonde replied, sounding a bit breathless, her voice lost somewhere deep in her throat.

"Did you?" Ruby asked shifting so she was facing her date on the blanket, causing everything else on it to quiver.

"Uh- No... I bought it. Sorry I amazing cooking skills to woo you with." Emma was still having some difficulties speaking with Ruby looking at her like that, and her abilities to be witty seemed to be malfunctioning.

"It's okay, I can cook just fine myself, so it kind of loses it's charm." Ruby brought her knees to her chest and rested the paper plate on top of them. The brunette wondered if Emma already knew that about her. "It's kind of cute that you can't though."

"I am not _cute_." Emma grimaced. The tone in her voice letting on that this was an old argument.

"You are, you're adorable." Ruby grinned at Emma's narrowing eyes. "Especially when you glare like that."

"Oh my god! How many times have-" The sheriff stopped suddenly, the fork previously stabbing at the air dropped to her plate. For a split second she had forgotten. Now she felt painfully awkward.

"And when you're embarrassed." Ruby added without missing a beat. Emma felt heat blossom in her cheeks at her embarrassment being point out. She looked up from the few noodles left on her plate to the woman across from her. She shifted closer, setting the mostly empty plate on the basket on the side of the blanket.

Emma visibly swallowed as her plate was taken from her. "Ruby."

"Yes?" The werewolf asked, the evening sun reflected in her eyes. The sheriff ran her eyes down her former lover, so close . She felt almost starved for her. It had been almost three months since the last time she had kissed her. Since she had been this close to her.

"Do... Do you want to have dessert?" Emma gestured to the basket. She was having trouble talking again, and focusing on Ruby's eyes.

"Depends, what're we having?" Ruby leaned forward, resting her arms on either side of the blonde's knees. The position gave Emma quite an excellent view of her date's cleavage and thinking when given that perspective was more than a bit difficult.

"Uh.. I have..."

It seemed as she spoke that Ruby had moved closer. Either that or Emma had leaned into her, and that was incredibly possible with the seemingly magnetic pull she was giving off.

"I want to kiss you." Emma nearly jumped when Ruby broke the silence that had formed between them, hot and heavy like a summer afternoon. Also one of her hands was resting on Emma's knee and the blonde wondered if Ruby was doing this on purpose.

"I've wanted to kiss you for a long time."

The tension was strung tight like a bowstring, and every word out of them was the pluck of an archer testing their weapon.

It was less than breathtakingly romantic when their lips met. The tiny fractions of seconds leading up to it felt like a first kiss on both sides though.

Emma felt almost frozen by the force of it. She had been looking forward to this moment or aching over the loss of it for the past few months. Their lip brush in the alleyway did not count. Right now she was kissing this woman she loved, and it was as always able to make her stop thinking.

They bent together flat against the blanket, Ruby on top of Emma. The brunette slid her fingers into fistfuls of Emma's blonde waves at the nape of her neck, supporting her head against the rather uneven ground.

Their bodies connected almost all the way to their toes which fit crookedly at the other end of the blanket.

Ruby's eyes had fallen shut, and when the moan Emma had been trying to suppress rather embarrassingly broke through a sound equal in pleasure burst from the brunette.

The kiss, the simple action of their lips together, and the feeling of Emma's impossibly soft lips moving against hers was jarring to Ruby. It was magical.

Not however the magical they had been looking for.

That thought didn't seem to even cross Ruby's mind. Not that many coherent thoughts at the moment. The added feeling of Emma's hands sliding up her back, and pulling her middle, and in turn her hips, flat against herself knocked any thoughts but the blonde's body beneath her, and her lips against hers from her mind.

The first kiss broke in almost the same way it had started. Hesitant but eager. Panting and staring into each others eyes it was no surprise when they were leaning back together, kissing again.

They spent the next half hour familiarizing or re-familiarizing themselves with each other.

At one point Emma built up the nerve, or her libido did, and she flipped the brunette over her. Which caused a rather fierce battle between them. Sweet gentle kissing turning a bit more aggressive. When they finally settled it, lying side by side in the grass, staring into each others eyes. Ruby felt her heart swell with this ever growing emotion.

It was clouded though, with a doubt. The kiss hadn't broke her stupor again. She knew Emma better now yes. But she didn't remember anything of the life she had supposedly lived.

It wasn't even that that she missed or yearned for though. Frustration beat deep in her because, she had already gotten to know this wonderful woman. She had already fallen in love with her, and shared sweet arguments about whether she was cute or not, (she was.) They'd obviously done quite a bit of making out based on the sweet spots Emma knew how to get just right. They'd been together, they'd been in love.

The fact that it was hurting Emma that she couldn't remember this. That the blonde couldn't be that person around her, it was hurting Ruby.

**A/N Next chapter will most likely be the last. Review while you can, aka, review now..., and next chapter. **


	7. VII

**A/N Longest chapter yet. Fitting for the finale... Yes sadly, this _is_ the last chapter. **

The next four days after their picnic Emma didn't go over six hours without seeing Ruby.

She was sure if it was was anyone else it would bother her, but it wasn't anyone else. It was Ruby, and she could never get enough of Ruby.

They spent almost an entire night that Ruby was supposed to close the diner sitting in a booth together just talking. Well talking and the more than occasional or accidental foot brush.

Emma actually felt like she was falling in love with this woman all over again.

It had a rather large 'but' though. That but being that every time they parted, every time they kissed, there seem to be this disappointment about it.

At first Emma had written it off as her just getting her hopes up for the curse to break. The more she was around Ruby though, the more she fell in love with her anew. The more she realized that if Ruby never recovered her memories of the relationship they'd use to have. That she would be okay with that.

This added factor led Emma to believe that maybe it wasn't her that was being disappointed every time.

For three more days Emma tried to ignore it. It was easy when she was Ruby. It was easy to ignore the world when she was with Ruby. When she wasn't with her it wasn't, and even occasionally Ruby would make a remark, a tiny statement that would send Emma over the edge. To sit there and stew over it.

It wasn't that she didn't love Ruby, she feared, it was because Ruby didn't love her.

Emma didn't need a pep talk from Snow to know what to do, or advice from David. Although it may have helped. Really Emma was just stubborn, and her resentment was growing, and maybe she'd had a drink or two.

When she got to the diner it was late, and it was raining. Emma knew the scene well, and really she thought you had to be much older to get hit with that aching nostalgia more than twenty times a week.

She wished there wasn't that bell above the door that clanged loudly announcing your arrival. If it hadn't maybe she could have stood there a bit longer, while Ruby hurried to finish wiping off the table she was at. Without glancing at her telling her she'd be with her a moment.

She just wanted to take in this all to familiar moment of Ruby in that waitress's uniform Emma had always had a love hate relationship with. If she could freeze moments in time she'd freeze the way that Ruby's worn out features shifted into that magnificent smile of hers when she turned to find the customer waiting at the door was Emma.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting you." The brunette greeted, still grinning as she crossed the small dining area to meet Emma at the door.

When she leaned into a kiss Emma almost wanted to pull out of the way, but couldn't force herself to. She jumped the tiniest bit when a hand met her behind in a playful squeeze.

The small, flirty, action caused Emma to start thinking if this was the right answer to this problem- that now seemed since she was with Ruby to be much much larger in her head.

Ruby's lips twitched down when she pulled away into a small frown though, and Emma took the moment to reassure herself mentally.

"What's wrong?" The brunette asked, looking so fully into Emma that even with her mental preparation she felt her resolve waver.

"I don't, I don't think..." Emma swallowed and felt the alcohol that she had more than maybe drunken, her liquid courage, making that pressure she had always fought building behind her eyes. "You're not doing this for me."

Ruby's brows came together in confusion, and she seemed to suddenly realize Emma's serious mood. "What? I'm not... I'm doing _this_ for _us_." The taller woman released her grip on Emma with one hand, keeping the other on her waist. She gestured between them as she spoke.

"It seem- It's like- You're just being with me to remember." Emma tried to shrug Ruby's hand off of her. The waitress however wouldn't let go, some insane fear telling her that if she did, she would be letting go of Emma forever.

"Of course that's a motive, but Emma I want to remember being with you!"

At what sounded like a confession that she was right Emma took a breath. Which sounded harsh and rough in her emotion raw throat. She turned her head to the side, attempting to blink away the moisture growing in her eyes, instead the action sent a drop of it loose, sliding down her cheek.

It caught the light, and Ruby leaned forward, attempting to brush the drop of moisture away. The blonde flinched away at the action, frowning deeply.

"I don't think this is working." Emma pulled herself finally from Ruby's grasp. Feeling like she was dragging herself away from a warm fire and into the frostbitten winter night.

"Emma. I don't know what I'm doing wrong." The waitress's own voice broke, and she looked at the bell, above the door. It was a worn copper and reflecting the lights, the edges of it blurred in her tear filled eyes. "Nothing here feels real anymore. I feel like I'm losing my mind, and you're the only solid ground I have. Are you really going to blame me for wanting that to stop?"

Emma honestly couldn't look at her anymore. She more than anything just wanted to be that solid ground. To hold her hand through this craziness. She had always been too stubborn for her own good though, and it was again getting the better of her.

"I just can't do this if you're always looking for something else, Ruby." Emma sounded just... broken. She didn't turn back to look at Ruby as she left. She was sure if she did she wouldn't be able to leave.

The bell jingling as the door closed never sounded so menacing. Ruby watched the blonde until she disappeared into her bug. She just stood there for a while, until she couldn't stand there anymore. Then

she slid to the ground, still watching the rather beat up yellow car.

She'd wrapped her arms around her legs in a tight embrace. She felt like if she got small enough there wouldn't be enough room to feel hollow.

That was how Granny found her as she came out front to lock up.

–

"Ruby, obviously she doesn't see that she threw a good thing away." Granny sat comforting her granddaughter as she lay on her bed, face down in her pillow trying to muffle the sobs that just kept raising in volume.

"It's my fault." Ruby managed, before burying herself deeper into the pillow. Assuming the guilt made her feel about ten times worse.

"Now how can you say that? _She's_ the one that ended it with _you_ right?" The old woman crossed her arms, looking defiantly at the young woman whose crying had subsided just a bit. Ruby lifted her head wondering where the comforting hand on her back had gone, and also longing for it.

Granny's features which had been set into a stern frown had shifted into one of pity at the shape her granddaughter was in.

Her makeup smudged, half gone, and the other half wiped all around her face. The apples of her cheeks splotched with red. Her nose had obviously started running some time ago. When Granny had found her nearly half an hour after Emma had left and asked her what was wrong she had started crying and it had just kept getting worse since.

"Yeah, but, but if I hadn't been trying so hard. If I'd just let myself fall for her for her and not some other reason. Then it wouldn't have happened." Ruby hiccuped through her explanation, her grandmother rolled her eyes at her.

"Maybe you are better off without her." The much older woman suggested, leaning to the bed side table within reach of the bed for a handful of tissues. With which she attempted to wipe the mess of makeup from her granddaughter's face.

"Hey, hey, hey! Let me do it." Ruby grabbed the wad of tissues from the innkeeper, attempting to avoid getting poked in the eye.

"Not my fault you wear so much makeup I can't even tell you have a real face." Granny jabbed, toning her usual bite down do to the rather tender situation. She didn't want her to start crying again.

"She's not bad. She's actually really sweet, just puts on this brave face for everyone. 'Cause she's scared of feelings..., like you."

Granny 'hmphed' at that, moving over so that Ruby could sit up properly.

"She's really great, and she cares about Henry so much... Under different circumstances I think she would have made such a great mom..., and she cares about me..." The brunette took a shaky breath wishing to stop the tears before they started.

"I just I can't imagine after we tried..., and we fit. I just loved being around her..., and if I would just let go of this hope... This hope of us kissing breaking this curse on me. Then I could be so happy with her. Maybe what we have isn't true love..., but whatever we have I like it, I love it."

"Do you know what it sounds like?" Ruby looked to her grandmother, who was giving her this just all over loving look.

"What?" She sounded a bit worried, and Granny couldn't blame her with the fierceness she'd always protected her from a love life.

"Sounds like you already do love her." The bed creaked as Granny stood. "And it sounds like you just want to be with her... Doesn't matter what was in the past."

"But how do I tell her that?" The brunette asked, sounding more like Red then Granny had heard her since her accident.

"Listen to your heart or something sappy like that. Don't ask me, I'm the one who's scared of feelings not you." The old woman smirked and Ruby couldn't help but smile back.

"But not tonight, you look like you got mauled by a bear while you were stumbling home from a night of drinking alone." Granny observed.

–

The next morning Ruby had off work, and she was ready to set thing straight with Emma. No giving her time to cool off. No she was doing this now.

She first went to Storybrooke's one and only flower shop. Where the owner glared at her the entire time she looked for just the right flowers, and while she payed, and while she left. Honestly she didn't _want_ to know why.

Finding Emma was the hard part. Harder than choosing which flowers to get. Flowers for Emma..., that was quite a chore.

She finally decided to just call Mary Margaret and ask her. She hadn't talk to her friend much except for in passing since her unfortunate border crossing. She didn't want someone who'd practically been her best friend being so awkward around her.

From the short conversation with the schoolteacher she learned that Emma had taken a patrol of the border in Archie's place. Mary Margaret then explained to Ruby where that patrol was, and paused, not yet saying goodbye. Ruby got the impression she had something else to say.

"And Ruby..." She started the connection crackling for a second as Ruby turned down a road leading into the woods. "... Good luck, I know how hard headed Emma can be."

The waitress didn't know how much her friend knew, but the encouragement made her heart swell. After all this was her daughter she was going to talk to, right?

"Thanks."

In the woods finding Emma was easy. She entered right where the road met the leaf mold covered ground. She walked about four feet from the neon orange spray painted line. Following something that sounded entirely too weird to Ruby, but she followed Emma's scent. It followed the border about the same distance away as Ruby was, and stopped in some place, becoming stronger in others. It was so odd, yet felt so familiar. Like she had been able to do this her whole life, but she had never really realized it.

Being near the border made her on edge. She didn't even want to know what would happen if she crossed again.

She found Emma a little less than three minutes from the road. The sheriff was walking the same direction as her, and Ruby felt nervousness bubbling up in her stomach at the sight of her. In those skinny skinny jeans, and her to the knee boots. The worn leather jacket that she knew from cuddling up to it two nights ago was creamy and so soft to the touch.

Last night Ruby had attempted to plan what she was going to say, but now she couldn't remember much of any of it.

_Words from the heart aren't planned. _She thought hopefully, and jogged the last few yards between them.

"Emma." She called, not wanting to startle the blonde. She was almost eerily silent on the wood floor, and her attempt at not startling her startled the so-called savior.

"Jesus!" Emma exclaimed, half looking over her shoulder, before snapping her eyes back to the woods in front of her. "Ruby, I don't think it's best for us to talk right now."

"No." Ruby grabbed a leather covered arm, and halted the blonde. Turning her to face her, still a respectable distance from the bright line.

"No?" Emma asked in reply. The sour look on her face outweighed by the humor in her voice.

"You dump on me that I forgot this relationship we had. Then we try to have a new one, and it's great. You're great... I'm the happiest I think I've ever been for a few days. Then you end it because I want this curse on me to break in some magical true loves kiss." Ruby set her shoulders back and sighed. This was definitely not how she was planning on starting their conversation, but once she had started she didn't think she could stop..

"Listen... Rubes, I just..., I think we-" The sheriff started to explain herself. Shifting on the spot, really not wanting another emotional confrontation. She however was cut off before she could really start.

"Emma, I am falling in love with you. Maybe I've already fallen. It's scary, I'd think that you would know that. I still don't know you as well as you'd think people in love should know each other. But I don't think they ever do. Maybe I was looking for a reason to hide behind for this way I'm feeling, I don't know. I just know I want to be with you. No matter what. I don't care if you have to tell me our first love story."

The younger woman tilted her head to find Emma's baby blues. She had just pretty much poured her heart out. She just wanted Emma to look at her.

"Did you get me flowers?" Emma asked, there was an undertone of awe in her voice, and as she finally looked up from the bouquet and found Ruby's eyes she was smiling.

"...yes." The brunette held up the colorful daisies to her former lover almost like a peace offering.

"No one's ever gotten me flowers before." The shorter woman was blushing now, and Ruby almost knew she was evading her and her plain as day emotions.

"If only I could scold my pre-curse self." Ruby grinned, and it didn't hurt. It didn't fill her with an ache to think she may never be that person again. She took a step closer to the blonde. Flowers still held as an offering. "I'm honestly surprised no one ever has."

Emma leaned in to smell the daisies, eyes closed against the bright colors. She put one hand out to touch Ruby's forearm, almost summoning her closer. The plastic around the bouquet crinkled, sounding wholly unnatural out here in the middle of everything nature.

"I guess I don't come off as the flower type."

"Everyone's the flower type." Emma took another step forward, and the comfortable distance between them became very _comfortable_.

Ruby held the flowers off slightly to the side by her right knee. Emma rested a hand on the junction of her once lover's shoulder and neck, pulling her forward by it. She paused extremely close to Ruby's face, taking in every perfect detail.

The kiss felt clean, and simple. Honest, with no second intentions. Just a kiss between to women in love.

Emma attempted to pull away, only to have Ruby grip the back of her neck, and pull her in closer. The attitude of the kiss quickly changing from one of slow innocence, sweet making up and love. To one of hunger and longing, the need Emma had felt for those two months in fairy tale land seemed built into the kiss. Only it wasn't coming from her.

"Emma!" The brunette gasped as the broke. Eyes shining, she wrapped her arms around the blonde, the bouquet of flowers pressing against her back somewhere over her shoulder. She pushed herself into the crook of Emma's neck, a place she had months ago found she had loved. Breathing in her scent. "Oh my god, I love you." Her words just seemed to be a wild attempt at explaining what she was feeling.

"Rubes, what's going on are you... Did-" The blue eyed woman's words were once again cut off, but this time by a kiss. A kiss full of greedy lips and love.

"I remember. I remember everything... Us, and my... my life." Ruby's face was lit up entirely by her smile, and Emma couldn't help kissing her again.

Even if she would have easily lived her life, and loved Ruby without her remembering... She was overjoyed to have her Ruby back. Especially if it was putting that look on her face.

"What did we do different?" Emma all but giggled, only Ruby, and that smile, could make Emma Swan _giggle_.

"_True_ love. You loved me for me, the me I was at that moment, I loved you for you."The brunette's smile grew, if possible as she explained. Sounding wondering and somewhere up in the clouds.

"I guess it's a lot harder than your mom and dad make it seem." Emma pulled a face at Ruby speaking of Snow and David being her parents. The face she didn't pull off very well, because she was still smiling like a lunatic.

"You realize that you're going to have to get to know Red now too?" Ruby asked, sliding the hand from Emma's cheek in to her blonde locks, unable to get enough of her.

"You mean I'm going to fall in love with you a third time?"

**A/N I hope you loved it, and thank you all for reading. Review and tell me how much you loved the chapter, or a previous chapter, or the whole thing!**


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